2011’s Melancholia is the silliest pessimistic-nihilistic film I’ve ever seen.

That a stray planet is heading for a collision with the earth is acceptable—it’s merely the movie’s creator, Lars von Trier, lying like truth—but almost everything else in Melancholia is laughably crass. Much of it is tedious too. The film’s dialogue, which usually seems improvised, is terrible, and pretentiousness prevails as well.

Lead actor Kirsten Dunst agreed to get naked for this wreck, even if, happily, her acting is more effective than it has been in the past.

That multiple critics praised von Trier’s movie tells you something about the current state of film criticism.